Stamp Issuing Entities Of The World

Since Great Britain issued the Penny Black and Two-Pence Blue in 1840, postage stamps have been issued in the name of more than 700 geopolitical entities. This has resulted in an array of stamps that may bewilder the beginning stamp collector, especially the collector whose study of history has somehow not included such areas as Alaouites or Trebizond.

In the following listing, we have attempted to provide a compilation of the nations, provinces, cities, armies and other entities that have, at one point or another, issued postage stamps.

For the purposes of this listing, we have limited listings of stamp-issuing entities to those authorities exercising de facto political control of an area or territory, which have issued stamps for other than strictly local use. We have omitted issues produced purely for municipal or private use.

We have attempted to provide brief geographical and historical sketches for each of these entities, so that the reader may obtain a general idea of where the country issuing a given stamp is located and its general circumstances and background.

We have not attempted to give complete philatelic background of all stamp-issuing entities. All entities are listed as active or inactive, the dates in the parentheses following the name of the country indicating the period of time during which stamps have been issued. A perusal of any of the leading catalogs and general nonphilatelic reference sources will supply additional information, and is highly recommended.

We have also attempted to indicate population where possible, including the most current figures we could find for territories that are now issuing stamps. For so-called dead countries, those entities no longer producing stamps, we have tried to supply the latest population estimate available from the period during which stamps were issued.